Ahmedabad court grants bail to Rahul Gandhi in defamation case by ADC Bank

Congress leader and former party chief Rahul Gandhi was granted bail by a Metropolitan Court in Ahmedabad on Friday in a criminal defamation case filed by Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank (ADC) and its chairman Ajay Patel.

Rahul Gandhi appeared in-person at the court in Ahemdabad on Friday and pleaded not guilty. The court, which had issued summons to Rahul, granted him bail on a bond of Rs 15,000. The next hearing in the case is kept on September 7.

The defamation case was filed against Rahul Gandhi for his allegations about the bank being involved in a scam to swap some Rs 750-crore of demonetized notes within days of the demonetisation on November 8, 2016. The complainants had claimed that the allegations by the Congress leader were "false and defamatory" against the bank.

Gandhi, however, had used an RTI reply by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) for alleging a 'scam' at the Bank after demonetisation.

Earlier in the day, Gandhi had tweeted announcing his Ahmedabad visit to appear for the court case. "I'm in Ahmedabad today, to appear in another case filed against me by my political opponents in the RSS/ BJP. I thank them for providing me these platforms & opportunities to take my ideological battle against them to the public. Satyameva Jayate," he had said on the microblogging site.

Notably, the cooperative bank, which has sued Gandhi has Union Home Minister Amit Shah as a director on its board.

The Congress leader is facing series of defamation cases at different places in the country.